Elevator safety device.



T. W. NEUMUTH. ELEVATOR SAFETY DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED APR, 15, I914. L134,403, v Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

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ELEVATOR SAFETY DEVICE.

APPLICATION men APR. I5, 1914.

1 1 3%Q3 Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

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THEODORE W. NEUMUTH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ELEVATOR SAFETY DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

Application filed April 15, 1914. Serial No. 831,928.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THEODORE W. NEU- MUTH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, county of Kings, city and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Elevator Safety Devices, of which the following is a clear, full, and exact description.

The object of this invention is to do away with the manually operated Windlass usually provided for elevator operators to clutch a falling car to the guides, and to give the operator a control means, so that the car itself in falling, will operate the Windlass without actual operation on the part of the operator.

A further object is to associate such device with the normal governor control safety device, such as used today, so that the operator may have the manual control operating in combination with the governor control.

In the elevators as equipped today with a governor control which operates to check the car by operating a drum and clamping the car to the guides, if one of the cables should break the governor device fails to operate, and will fail to operate until all of the cables break and the car is actually falling. As elevator accidents usually occur by the breaking first of the one strand of a cable which the operator can hear rattling down in the shaft, and which the governor does not control until all the cables break, or part, it is the purpose of this invention to provide the operator with means for controlling the operation of the governor control, that he may stop the car upon the breakage of the first cable if found necessary.

A still further object of my invention is to connect the control mechanism for stopping the elevator upon its fall with the ordinary hand operating wheel used by the operator in ascending or descending. This I accomplish by attaching a connecting rod to the hand wheel and to the lever which carries the wedge so that when the operator moves the handle to a position for ascending or descending the connecting rod will hold the wedge carrying lever in such position that the wedge will be free of the governor cable, but upon returning the hand wheel to the stop position the rod will permit the lever and wedge to lock the governor cable. The actual locking of the cable will be accomplished by a spring and dash-pot so that its action on applying the wedge will be slow compared to the operation of the hand wheel and the car given a limited movement before the application of the wedge.

The scope of the invention will be pointed out in the claims.

As shown in the drawing: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic sectional view of my device as applied to an elevator. Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of the car showing the clamping member. Fig. 3 is a detail enlarged sectional view of the control clamp. Fig. 4 is a sectional detail of the guide and clamping wedge. Fig. 5 is a' view similar to Fig. 1 showing a modified construction within the car. Fig. 6 is a detail in section of the dashpot shown in Fig. 5.

As shown in the drawings, 1 is the car; 2, 3 are the usual guide rails. On the bottom of the car a drum 4 is provided, on which a cable 5 is wound, one end being attached to the drum. The drum is fast on the screw shaft 6, having right and left screw threads. Right and left nuts 7 and 8 are carried on the screw shaft 6 and are pivotally connected with one end of lever arms 9 pivoted at 10 to the car body adjacent to the edge and provided with clamping jaws 11 adapted to clamp the rails and hence stop the car upon a rotation of the drum, which separates the nuts 7 and 8 and applies the safety device.

12 is the ordinary cable and 13 the sheave for the raising and lowering of the elevator.

The cable 5 passes over a governor sheave 14 and returns to the bottom of the shaft in a free loop, generally having a weight supported in the saddle not shown in the drawing, and is attached at 15 to the car. Clamping jaws 16 and 17 on the overhead 18 will operate to grasp the rope 5 and hold it provided the car drops upon a breakage of the cable, and in, so doing rotate the drum 4 and apply the safety device.

So far as described, the device is old, and has been used in many modern elevators.

According to my invention, I provide upon the car an arm 19 pivoted at 20 to the car body, having a wedge-shaped aperture 21 through which the rising side of the cable 5 passes. The pivoted arm 19 is normally held in theposition of Fig. 1 by a spring 22, and rod 23, secured to the car, and holding down the free end of the pivoted arm 19. The arm 19 carries, fulcrumed thereto, a bent lever 23, one end of which is provided with a depending rod 24, and'a.

connecting rod or cable 25 secured to one end of a lever 26, which lever is operated by a foot control 27 so that on either pulling the hand control 24 or stepping on the foot control 27 the bent lever 23 will be operated. The free end of the bent lever 23 carries a connecting link 28 connected to a wedge clamping member 29 by a link 30. The wedge member 29 is carried in a guide 30 on a pivoted frame 19. Normally the parts occupy the position of Fig. l by gravity, or other mechanical means may be provided to cause them to occupy this normal position, but upon the operator desiring to stop the car by his safety means, he operates either the rod 24 or the foot control 27,

raising the wedge member 29 into the wedgeshaped aperture 21, as shown in Fig. 3, clamping the cable 5 to the pivoted arm 19 which is free to give through its spring 22 in a resilient manner, and then be brought tautly to place and pulled down against its upward movement. The result of this is not only to stop the upward motion of the cable 5, but to pull it in the opposite direction, thus rotating the drum 4, spreading the nuts 7 and 8, and clampingthe car safely to the guide rails. As shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the lever carrying the wedge is of a slightly modified construction from that shown in the previous figures. A bent lever 50 is pivoted at 31 to the frame 19; and a con-- necting'link 32 connects the lever 50 and the piston rod 33 of the dash-pot 34. In the dash-pot 34 is a piston 35 having a strong spring 36 thereunder tending to lift the piston. The piston has a relief'valve 37 to permit the ready downward motion of the dash-pot piston and a restricted valve 38 to limit the upward motion of the piston. A link 39 having a slotted end 40 engages a stud 41 on the lever 50. The connecting link 39 is fast to the ordinary operating wheel 42, which is provided with the usual operating handle 43. The position of the arrow 44 is the normal position of the handle 43 of the hand wheel when the car is brought to a stop, in which instance, the connecting link 39 will be lifted, releasing the lever 50 and the spring 36 in the dash-pot will move the lever so that the wedge 29 will grasp the control cable. This will be done slowly in View of the dash-pot so that the additional foot or more that the car moves after the return of the hand wheel 43 to normal position can take place without the locking of the car against motion. Upon starting the car, throwing the handle 43 either to the right or left lowers the wedge and releases the'governor cable. v

' In carrying out this invention, details of construction may be varied from those shown, and yet the essence of the invention be retained; some parts might'be employed without others, and new features thereof might be combined with elements old in the art in diverse ways, although the herein described type is regarded as embodying subtions. As many changes could be made in the above construction, and many apparently widely different embodiments of the invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown'in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted in an illustrative and not in a limiting sense. It is furthermore desired to beunderstood'that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all the generic and specific features ofvthe invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which as a matter of language might be said to fall therebetween. i

I claim as my invention:

1. In an elevator safety-device, the combination, with the elevator-car, ofa governor-control cable; and controlling mechansim, engageable with said cable, including a pivoted and resiliently held member carried by said car and provided with a wedgeaperture through which said cable passes, and wedge means engageable with said aperture to clamp said cable to said member.

2. In an elevator safety-device, the combination, with the elevator-car, of a governorcontrol cable; and controlling mechanism, engageable with said cable, including a pivoted and resiliently held member carried by said car and provided with a wedgeaperture through which said cable passes, and a wedge-member engageable with said aperture to clamp said cable to said pivoted member.

3. Inan elevator safety-device, the combination, with the elevator-car, of a governorcontrol cable; and controlling mechanism, engageable with said cable, including an arm pivoted, at one end, to the car, and a spring-actuated rod connected to the other end of said armand resiliently holding said arm against movement in one direction.

4. In an elevator safety-device, the combination, with the elevator-car, of a governorcontrol cable; and controlling mechanism, engageable with said cable, comprising: a pivoted and resiliently-held member carried by said car and provided with a wedge aperture, through which saidcable passes; a wedge engageable with said aperture to clamp said cable to said member; and manually-operable-means for moving said wedge into said aperture to clamp said cable to said member.

5. In an elevator safety-device, the combination, with the elevator-car, of a govstantial improvements over such modificaernor-control cable; and controlling mechanism, engageable With said cable, comprising: a pivoted and resiliently-held member carried by said car and provided With a Wedge-aperture, through Which said cable passes; a Wedge engageable With said aperture to clamp said cable to said member; and manually-operable means, including a lever fulcrumed to said member, for moving said Wedge into said aperture to clamp said 10 cable to said member.

Signed at New York city, New York, this 13th day of April, one thousand nine hundred and fourteen.

THEODORE W. NEUMUTH.

Witnesses:

F. WARREN WRIGHT, MABEL DITTENHOEFER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

